The American government has suspended its funding of the University of East Anglias climate research unit (CRU), citing the scientific doubts raised by last Novembers leak of hundreds of stolen emails.
The US Department of Energy (DoE) was one of the units main sources of funding for its work assembling a database of global temperatures.
It has supported the CRU financially since 1990 and gives the unit about £131,000 ($200,000 USD) a year on a rolling three-year contract.
This should have been renewed automatically in April, but the department has suspended all payments since May pending a scientific peer review of the units work.

The leaked emails caused a global furore. They appeared to suggest that CRU scientists were using tricks to strengthen the case for man-made climate change and suppressing dissent.
A spokesman for the DoE said: The renewal application was placed on hold pending the conclusion of the inquiry into scientific misconduct by Sir Alastair Muir Russell.
Muir Russell published his report earlier this month. It said that the rigour and honesty of the CRU scientists were not in doubt but criticised them for a consistent pattern of failing to display the proper degree of openness.
The DoE peer review panel will now sift through the report and decide if American taxpayers should continue to fund the unit.
A spokesman for the university said: We are still waiting to hear if the latest bid for funding to the US Department of Energy has been successful and would not comment or speculate in the meantime.